From Chris-Lisa Thomison
West Nile Virus can be deadly, so today we vaccinated our ambassador birds.
We never want to see our friends sick, so preventative measures must be taken.
Everyone was brave and will receive an extra mouse for cooperation.
And we did a check up on one of the Bald Eagles (Eugene).
He’s recovering from a coracoid injury and we are hopeful for release this summer!!!
Big thanks to Dr. Thom Haig and Mary Ellen for house calls.
How do you catch birds en masse, in time for an appointment?
These are ambassadors, so they should be a bit more used to being handled regularly.
One time when I was visiting The Raptor Trust, they had just gotten in this adorable Barred owl, and I watched the one staff member work with him. She was starting his crate training to get him used to it and seeing it was safe to go inside it. She basically led him with a breadcrumb trail of mousey bits inside. It gets them cooperative for their regular exams and in case of emergency.
When I saw the Amazing Acro-cats cat circus and rock band, their trainer also said this is the first thing all the cats learn for safety reasons. With one command she can get several dozen cats all in their carriers if they need to get moved to safety quickly. My cats would never listen to that, but I trusted they were smart enough, all being semi-feral so they had proven survival instinct. My hound dogs were brainless though, so they all got trained to get inside their house right away.